


That Day is Not Today

by Welfycat



Category: Community
Genre: Community: caffeinatedmagic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2012-01-16
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The time will come when Troy has to face his destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Day is Not Today

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [CaffeinatedMagic](http://caffeinatedmagic.dreamwidth.org/) Prompt Table 01; Prompt: Broken  
> Content Notes: None. G.  
> Author Notes: Takes place early season two.

Abed looked up from the notebook he'd been working in. His fingertips were smudged with ink from the sketch he'd drawn to illustrate his thoughts for the backdrop of his newest film. It had come time to move beyond the study room and beyond the Greendale campus. He was ready for this.

He had muted the tv, the constant loop of the Stargate theme was okay but tended to get stuck in his head after more than a handful of repetitions, and it wasn't until he saw the time on Troy's cellphone that he realized that Troy had been gone for seven minutes.

After more than a year Abed had finally cemented the rules for bathroom accompaniment according to situation and gender. Annie and Shirley accompanied each other under most circumstances and Britta joined them approximately 72 percent of the time. Jeff never went into the bathroom with anyone and would resurface by himself even after being pursued by another person. Pierce occasionally attempted to follow girls into the girls bathroom, but in general he went into the mens room by himself.

With Troy it was a little bit different; Abed went with Troy to most places, so they occasionally entered the bathrooms together as well. However, when Troy said, "I gotta go" and jumped up to walk down to the communal dorm bathrooms, Abed didn't go with him and vice versa. Abed had determined that nothing in this was out of the range of normal behavior, but Troy taking more than four minutes to return was abnormal.

A number of possibilities ran through Abed's mind, ranging from the alien invasion they had planned two weeks ago to a group of the freshman attempting to explode all the toilets at once - again. In either case, it was possible that Troy would need assistance. Abed closed his notebook and wedged it in between the end of his mattress and the frame of his bed: it was traditional to make a futile effort to hide any handwritten materials that might reveal something about oneself.

The halls of the dorm were quiet, which was not unexpected on a Thursday evening. Most of the dorm was probably out celebrating Friday-Eve and the ones who weren't were holed up in their rooms with projects that would bring about various levels of self-destruction. The quiet didn't make Abed feel any less concerned about whatever disaster had befallen Troy. In the quiet lurked shape changing murderous extra-terrestrials and particularly disturbing serial killers.

Abed moved so that he was walking against the wall, his footsteps soft and measured. He had an advantage; he was aware and not preoccupied with thoughts that didn't relate to their impending doom. After a long journey of two hallways that left his hands slick with sweat and his heart racing in a way that wasn't entirely comfortable, Abed reached the door to the bathrooms and took a slow breath.

He opened the door slowly, thankful that he hadn't ever tried to oil the squeaking hinges because that would detract from the moment, and leaned inside. Abed realized his mistake almost immediately. This wasn't an alien invasion or series of youthful mischievous college pranks. This was a witnessed moment of self-realization and the accompanying angst disguised as drama that went with it.

Troy was standing a few paces away from the counter, the steady drip of the third faucet from the left punctuating his blank yet slightly distressed expression. There was a wrench in his hands, the metal head resting against one open palm while he watched the water falling drop by drop.

Abed knew, as Troy knew, that if Troy walked over to that sink with the wrench, it would be fixed and there would be nothing they could do to stop it. He stepped inside the bathroom and let the door shut with a bang behind him.

Troy turned his head, but left his body angled toward the broken sink.

"Do it," Abed said, nodding toward the leaking faucet. "You want to. You can feel it calling to you."

Troy shook his head and swallowed hard. "I don't. I don't want to. That's not who I am."

Abed tilted his chin at the wrench in Troy's hands. "It doesn't define who you are, but it's a part of you. You can't deny it forever."

"I can try," Troy said, his jaw tightening. "I'm not going to leave Greendale. I'm not going to become what they want me to become."

"Fix it, Troy," Abed said quietly. "You don't have to leave Greendale, not now, not today. But you know you aren't going to leave this bathroom until you fix that faucet."

Troy shifted his shoulders, his attention once again drawn by the sound of water drops falling at irregular intervals. He sighed, deep and heavy, and walked over to the counter with his sneakers squeaking on the damp tiles of the floor. Crouching down, Troy used the wrench on the pipes beneath the counter. One twist, then another, and the dripping stopped.

Abed walked to the sink and turned the handle, watching as water streamed steadily out and then stopped when he turned the handle back into the off position. Troy was standing when he turned and they met each others eyes.

"Are you ready to go back? We still have two more episodes on this disc. I think Earth is invaded again this season," Abed said, knowing his feeble peace offering wasn't quite enough.

Troy nodded and set the wrench down on the counter. "Yeah, let's go back."

Abed heard the unspoken 'while I still can' and ignored it. They had time. They still had time.


End file.
